"Determine to live life with flair and laughter."
-Maya Angelou

Posts categorized "Food and Drink"

May 10, 2013

Asparagus soup (because I just can't get enough of asparagus this time of year) A field of grape hyacinths in our neighborhood (I have only been meaning to get a photo of this brief bloom for 14 years)Finches in our Gravenstein apple tree:White Bleeding Heart at Hendricks Park:The way I'm trying to be:The way they are trying to be ;)All we need is:A blurry turkey who was trying to find a girlfriend (he is out of focus because it was raining so hard that my camera would only focus on the rain.)Big ol' jet airliner:My neighbors lilacs (every year he invites me over to pick a basketful)Molcajete at Los Dos Amigos(even better as leftovers the next day) and a much needed night out with friends:Painted Lady butterfly that our preschool class raised and released:

February 18, 2013

I love birthdays, yours, mine, his, hers. I love shopping for gifts, and making a card, and most of all getting together with that special someone to celebrate them.

And this year I came down with a nasty virus right before my birthday, so my family postponed our get-together until we could all be together- here is a little taste of my birthday:

2013- the cake:The cake bakers:Lunch with my family at one of my favorite Eugene restaurants, Noli:Me, the one who usually takes all the photos, ready to have the camera back (yet secretly happy to have a photo of me at lunch):Salad,shared with my mom:

"Pirate Pasta", aka penne, with cheese for Emma:Spaghetti with extra meatballs for Ben:Minestrone soup with a grilled veggie sandwich for me:Pasta with seafood for my brother Joe:Carbonara Pasta for Dave:dessert at home...The best kind of birthday, filled with really delicious food, lots of laughter, and people I love. Oh, and cake, of course.

September 25, 2012

Recently I saw a salad similar to this one at a local deli (I didn't try it, just took a good, long look- something the cooks in my family are know to do- many of them also used to bring menus home from restaurants but that's another post) and came up with this end of summer salad:

Edamame End of Summer Salad

1 c. edamame

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup fresh, cooked corn (stripped off the cob)

1 cup cherry (or other) tomatoes, sliced

1/4 cup diced red onion

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

the juice of one lime

salt and pepper to taste

Toss all ingredients and serve (makes 2 servings).

This salad keeps well for a day, I love to have it with some grilled pita bread and Nancy's Nonfat Plain yogurt mixed with lemon juice, a diced garlic clove, and chopped fresh mint.

July 01, 2012

In our house nothing tastes quite like summer as much as fresh basil pesto. Our local farmer's market supplies us with basil until the July heat gives our backyard basil a chance to grow. A 5 ingredient recipe? Sign me up! This time of year,when it is too hot to cook inside, it's nice to have some of this basil pesto on hand to top whatever you are grilling or some cold leftovers. For my favorite pesto you will need 8-10 cloves of peeled garlic, 1/2 c. toasted pine nuts, 1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese, olive oil, and 3-4 bunches fresh basil (leaves only). By the way, this recipe makes around 1 1/2 cups of basil pesto.

Add garlic and pine nuts to base of food processor:Pulse until corse and combined- it will look like this:Add basil leaves:Pulse until chopped:Drizzle olive oil through the top of your food processor until pesto is smooth (around 1/2-3/4 cup of olive oil), add cheese, process until well blended.Spoon into airtight containers, cover with a layer of olive oil (to prevent discoloration), freeze for 3-6 months or store in the refrigerator for up to a week (but it will more than likely be gone before that week is up!)

We eat it on hot or cold pasta, with shrimp, salmon, or chicken, on lightly toasted baguettes, mixed into a favorite salad dressing, on top of soups, as a sandwich spread, the list is endless. Just make sure to freeze some for the cold winter months when a little taste of summer sunshine is just what you need to brighten your spirits.

February 01, 2012

So very happy that Emma loves to have fun in the kitchen, and her current favorite thing to bake is cookies, chocolate-chip, gingerbread, oatmeal butterscotch, and now sugar cookies using this cool Message In A Cookie set that she bought using some of her Christmas money.The set comes with several words and 3 full sets of alphabet letters so that you can write anything you want on your cookie (up to 2 lines per cookie.) I can see these coming in handy all year round! Now if I can just keep enough flour, sugar, and butter in stock...

January 22, 2012

Most people who know us know that in the Ackerman household Sunday night is pizza night. Our Sunday night pizza night started before we had kids and since they were old enough to eat solids Ben and Emma have eagerly joined us for this ritual. Served with a salad for us, veggies and fruit for the kids, it has become a dinner routine that is met with a chorus of "nooooo's" when pizza is not on the Sunday table.

Dave, who takes two carefully wrapped pieces of cold pizza with him every day to work without fail, is teased incessantly by his coworkers about his pizza for lunch habit. Among the many jokes lobbed his way as he unwraps his pizza lunch is the inevitable "doesn't your wife know how to make anything else for your lunch?" psst, guys, I don't pack his lunch. I also don't lay out his clothing for him the night before work. Dave is just a guy who really likes his pizza, even every day for lunch, so much so that he travels with his own microwave from work-site to work-site so he can reheat his slices. I'm just the girl who makes sure he takes a serving of fruit and vegetables to balance out a little of the cheese.

As I was cleaning our pizza cutter this evening I was struck by the thought that this almost 18 year old, well worn, well loved, kitchen utensil is so much more than just a pizza cutter.

This pizza cutter has moved with us to 3 different homes and it's handle used to read "Papa Aldo's" before they merged and became "Papa Murphy's"- and yes, I realize you didn't need to know that but every fourth time that we bake pizza Dave reminds me of this. And it is one of our stories so I smile and nod and remember bits of culinary trivia about our early married life like the time I sent him to the store three times for something to keep our first Thanksgiving turkey tied shut or when he made me waffles using the baking soda from the fridge that was there to absorb odors.

Our beloved pizza cutter has also been used to cut pancakes and waffles into bite sized chunks for Ben and Emma's breakfasts and to even open a box or two (shh, don't tell Dave.)

Pizza is what Dave cooks for his weekly turn at dinner night, and he cooks it to perfection. And with his favorite pizza cutter in hand he is able to get 16 slices out of a family size pizza -a point of pride almost equalled by his pizza cooking technique that involves moving the almost cooked pizza off the pan and broiling the top until it is just right. The fact that Dave is completely in charge of his pizza cooking technique also gives me a night off from cooking, and a night off from cooking makes for a super happy me.

By my calculations, give or take a week without pizza, this humble little cutter has made neat triangles out of almost 2,000 pizzas. That's over a 1000 nights of coming together as a family to eat, laugh, and share a little love.

And that, my friends, is when a pizza cutter is more than just a pizza cutter.

September 09, 2011

Here is a look at the 5 Summer Salads my mom and I prepared last weekend to celebrate my dad's birthday (thank you summer for finally giving us enough sun to be able to harvest most of the ingredients from our own gardens.)

Snowpea With Yogurt, Dill, Cashews, and Cilantro Quinoa with Tomatoes and CucumbersCucumbers and Vinegar with Walla Walla Sweet Onions Fresh Corn Salad with Red Bell Peppers, Lime, Cilantro and Red OnionCaprese Salad with Heirloom Tomatoes, Fresh Mozarella, Basil, and Olive Oil Oh, yeah, and that Chocolate Cake with Chocolate-Peanut Butter Frosting (lest you think we were a bunch of healthy eaters over here.)

June 27, 2011

OK, I will admit the title is a stretch but now that we lack "life-changing TV" ever since Oprah went off the air I figured I needed to fill my days with a new hobby, and that hobby is making homemade artisan bread.

Reason #1 for making my own bread at home: early this spring while picking up a loaf to have with dinner I suffered from some sticker shock when I realized my favorite local bread was now almost $6.00!

Reason #2 for making my own bread at home: I know what is in it.

Reason #3 for making my own bread at home: to see if I could (take that Little Red Hen.)

I started with a book I read rave reviews about on several blogs-

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day:I reserved a copy at our local library so I could try it out for free before I bought it- loved it and waited for a Borders 50% coupon before buying my own copy so my initial investment came to $12 - or the equivilent of 2 loaves of store-bought bread.

To start I needed a 6 quart container with a lid ($6 at Cash-N-Carry, or 1 loaf of bread), yeast ($3 at the same store for a 1 pound package, enough to make dozens of loaves, equal to a 1/2 loaf of bread-and just found a 2 pound bag at Costco for the same price). 5 pounds of organic all-purpose flour came to $4 (an almost loaf), kosher salt and water I have on hand and am not counting in the cost, a pizza paddle ($5 at Ross, we will call that a loaf), and a pizza stone ($12 at Ross, or 2 loaves of bread). So for the initial investment of $42, or roughly 7 loaves of bread, I had everything I needed to make 12 loaves of bread ($48 at the store.) One reason I love making this bread, YOU NEVER HAVE TO KNEAD THE DOUGH! You mix all the ingredients in one large container, let it rise for 2 hours, refrigerate the dough, then pull out a piece of dough when you are ready to bake, let it rise for 40 minutes, then bake for 30 minutes.Fresh bread on the table, any night of the week in about an hour, for around .27 cents per loaf. A house that smells like a bakery. An excuse to use the butter bell. A happy family.

April 25, 2011

March 29, 2011

I grew up with the extraordinary priveledge of knowing my maternal and paternal grandparents (as well as 2 great-grandmothers, a great-grandfather, and even have some early memories of great-great grandparents too). Like my parents before me, at different times during my life, we have lived within walking distance of at least one set of grandparents. As a young child we lived with my maternal grandparents for a year, Grandma and Grandpa Jones, who owned restaurants (as did Grandma Jones' parents) and because of this I have grown up around people who love food, love to cook, and love to teach others to cook.

Our children are lucky to have one set of grandparents 2 blocks away, grandparents who love to have them over for some fun in the kitchen. And on the day these photos were taken my mom, aka Grandma, bought some locally made pizza dough, some sauce and cheese, tied aprons on Ben and Emma, and let them make their own pizzas. There was a little gentle instruction but for the most part she just stood back and let them go for it. Yes, it was a bit messy, and yes, some ingredients were eaten and not used on the pizzas, but what was best about this day was how their laughter filled the kitchen.

Not only did making their own pizzas give them each special appreciation for the food that was on their plates (they both said it was the best pizza they had ever eaten) but it reminded me that by adding a few extra minutes to the dinner routine, and being a little more patient when having them join me in meal preparation, will go a long way in giving both Ben and Emma that same love of being in the kitchen that I learned from my family.